Do you ever get in one of those situations where you find yourself with a bounty of one type of food (in this case zucchinis) and yet you have no motivation to actually eat it? 

That’s where Dave and I were at on Wednesday.  The last two CSA baskets we have received have had an abundance of zucchinis and cucumber(but that’s another story).  Plus our one little zucchini plant has been producing like crazy! We have been slipping zucchini into everything–pasta, pizza, Asian noodles, everything. We were down to our last two (very large) zucchinis and we were out of ideas. So I did as some many others do and switched on the computer and looked up some of my favorite food blogs for ideas.  I came across two recipes that I thought could handle the job.

The first—and the one we actually had for dinner was a zucchini galette with ricotta.  An awesome vegetarian dinner option to enjoy and I am pretty sure this recipe could be adapted to fit whatever produce is in season.  The other is zucchini bread. I cannot actually remember the last time I ate let alone made zucchini bread and Dave was a little nervous about the idea too, but the results spoke for themselves and it was delicious! It is our new favorite afternoon snack.

Below are my amateur attempt at photos and recipes (with website links)

Zucchini Galette from Always with Butter 

Makes one galette –serve (2 -3)

Pastry:

• 1 1/4 cups flour, chilled (in freezer for 30min)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 8 tbsp cold butter cut into cubes
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2tsp lemon juice (about 1/2 large lemon)
• 1/4 cup ice water

Filling:

• 1 large zucchini cut into 1/4 in rounds
• 1-2 roma tomatoes (you can add more if you want more)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 small onion cut into rings
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/4 c. grated parmesan
• 1/4 c. shreded mozzarella
• fresh or dried thyme
• sprig or two of rosemary
• olive oil

 Pastry Prep:

1. Whisk (cold) flour and salt, cut in butter.
2. Mix sour cream lemon and water in bowl. Add to flour mixture until just combined (kinda like biscuits).
3. Wrap the dough and chill for 1 hour

Baking:

1. Oven at 400 degrees
2. Spread zucchini over a cookie sheet (or parchment paper) and sprinkle with salt and allow to sit for 30 minutes—or until everything is prepped.
3. Mix ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella and a drizzle of olive oil.
4. Mix in the garlic , a sprinkle of thyme leaves and some roughly chopped rosemary (maybe ¼ teaspoon each). Season with salt and pepper.
5. Roll out dough into a 12 inch round.
6. Very important place on baking sheet before you assembled –I made that mistake and it was a very messy transition.
7. Spread ricotta mixture over dough leaving a two inch border.
8. Place onion, zucchini and tomato over the cheese mixture. Drizzle with olive oil and a few thyme leaves and rosemary.
9. Fold over crust, brush with olive oil (or you could do an egg wash).
10. Bake for 30-40 minutes until crust is set and flaky.

Such a simple supper but it is so good. The crust is flaky and the herbs and fresh veggies is amazing.

I also saved some for lunch the next day and it was fantastic! I took it out of the frig in the morning and let it come to room temperature—almost better than the night before because the cheese had the time to set and it was not as gooey as at dinner.

Dave and I are definitely going to try this one again but with more  variety in the types of veggies, maybe some swiss chard, asparagus, even potato.

Zucchini Bread from Smitten Kitchen  

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup olive oil

• 1 3/4 cups sugar

• 2 cups grated zucchini
 (one zucchini of mine was closer to 3 cups but I just threw it all in)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour ( I did 1 ½ whole wheat, 1 ½ all purpose)
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon

• 1/8 teaspoon pumpkin spice mix

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or nuts a combination thereof (I used a handful of raisins)

 Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans, liberally (I super greased down two loaves –with Crisco ashamedly, and they came out smooth enough). 
3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini.
4. Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as any nuts, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, you want to use
5. Stir into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.
6. Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

This is a nice alternative to dessert or a sweet snack, Dave enjoys it with a smear of almond butter.

Enjoy,
Rachell